Homes of Designers and Architects: Provence and Russian Countryside Style

If you have long dreamed of refreshing the interior of your dacha but don't know where to start, use ideas from designers – each project has something you can take inspiration from to recreate in your own home.

Anna Vasileva's Dacha in the Moscow Region

This beautiful house was built by Anna Vasileva for herself and her five-person family. The plot is located within an old dacha settlement, so there was no talk of doing anything modern here, made from glass and concrete. The goal was to make the house cozy and functional in the style of old Moscow dachas.

Anna considered several options, from French shacks to American cottages, and ultimately settled on a Scandinavian house – a distant relative of dachas in Peredelkino and Malakhovka.

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Architect Ilya Nasonov's Dacha in Mukhino

"This is my native dacha, where I grew up," explains Ilya Nasonov. "The interior of my childhood had worn out and become cluttered with all sorts of junk. As an adult with design education, I decided it was time to turn the dacha into a 'place of strength' again. Just like in childhood, when everyone gathered at our place for intimate kitchen conversations."

There was no re-planning or extensive coordination: Mom lives on the dacha all summer, so a major renovation wasn't an option. All that could be done was to clear the house of accumulated junk over the past couple of decades. I simply called Mom and told her that new furniture would arrive in two days – everything must be thrown out and distributed by then."

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Designer Anastasia Muravyova's Dacha in Ryazan Oblast

"We set ourselves the goal of building a comfortable and spacious house where there would be enough room for all family members and numerous guests," says the designer. "We immediately decided that it would be wooden, in Russian style."

The road from Moscow passes through Gzhel, so the idea arose to use Gzhel motifs in the interior. White and blue tableware defined the color palette: there is a lot of blue in the house.

"Blue promotes reflection, is associated with cleanliness and coolness, and also with water," says Anastasia. "It beautifully contrasts natural wood tones and in a wooden house doesn't create a feeling of cold. In other rooms I used warm colors: green, yellow, red."

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Designer Irina Lavrentieva's Dacha in Puchkovo

The small summer house near Troitsk (88 square meters) was bought by Irina Lavrentieva and her husband, falling in love with the surrounding apple orchard, and they immediately started renovation. The siding that was used to cover the log walls was replaced with wood, a veranda was added with access from the kitchen, new electrical wiring was installed, and floors were re-laid.

The interior also changed beyond recognition. On the first floor, the walls and ceiling were painted white to visually expand the space. On the second floor, the beams were exposed – the rooms instantly filled with air. For the children’s room, joyful coral and soft blue colors were ideal, while for the bedroom, white was chosen.

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On the cover: Irina Lavrentieva's Dacha.